Joanne Baker is chief opinion editor at the international science journal Nature, where she has worked for more than 15 years. Before that she was earth and space science editor at the journal Science.

After studying physics at university, Joanne spent a decade as an academic researcher in astrophysics, specifically looking at quasars (active galaxies with giant black holes in their centres) and the cosmic microwave background (thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang).

She has published three books with Quercus: 50 Ideas you really need to know about Physics, The Universe, and In Quantum Physics.

As well as her job at Nature, she has written for outlets including Sky and Telescope magazine and The Times and appeared as a panellist on BBC Radio 4’s show Home Planet. In 2019 she was a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard University.

Her next book, A Cultural History of the Cosmos, will be published by Bloomsbury.

c. Tony Rinaldo